Four Reasons for Men to Experience the IWL Women’s Leadership Conference

The IWL Women’s Leadership Conference will be in Louisville on April 11, 2018. This will be my fourth IWL Conference, but I’m not a woman. I’m a leader, and the IWL Conference is one of the most unique leadership conferences I’ve ever experienced. There’s an assumption that the IWL conference is a women’s conference, by women, about women, and for women – only. But, it’s a conference for women and men who are striving to be better leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, community volunteers, and humans at work.

Here are four reasons men should experience the IWL Conference.

1. Learn From Corporate Insiders – The IWL conference agenda brings top corporate leaders to share insights you wouldn’t learn unless you worked on their teams in their companies. The IWL Conference in Louisville includes speakers who are corporate executives at Mercer, Roche Diagnostics, KFC, YUM! Brands, Humana, Brown-Forman, Papa-John’s International, and more. It’s a one-day immersion into the hearts, minds, and inner-workings of corporate insiders an innovative companies.

2. Experience Interaction and Energy – This is not a conference where you can keep to yourself, bury your face in the conference program, and fade into the background. And the energy of the conference doesn’t come from the stage. It comes from the audience – the people sitting next to you. There’s high energy and interaction between participants before the first speaker takes to the stage. Participants are eager to get to know each other, share ideas, and learn from one another. If you’ve ever led a large team meeting or tried to facilitate a group to interact, you know how difficult it can be to create conversations and meaningful interactions. Not at an IWL Conference. Each year, participants set the welcoming tone of respect, inclusion, and generosity at every table and in every session.

3. Gain A New Perspective – The IWL Conference is about perspective. Not one perspective. Not only a woman’s perspective. Not only a man’s perspective. It’s about seeing, hearing, and learning from a variety of perspectives. There are plenty of “like me” conferences where there’s a singular perspective, a primary point of view, and the audience is full of people “just like me.” While that sounds safe, it’s insular and potentially polarizing. The IWL Conference is designed to share multiple perspectives on leadership from people you may not interact with on a regular basis. And participants want to learn from your perspective, too!

4. Take Action & Make A Difference – IWL conferences aren’t about listening to speakers, nodding in agreement, and walking away at the end of the day with a few business cards. You will leave each session with actions, new behaviors to try, and different solutions to leadership challenges. And you’ll be motivated to make a difference – with your team, your organization, and your community. This is a “can-do” conference that will have you saying, “Yes, I will do it!” This year’s conference theme is “Better Together,” and that’s the primary reason men should participate. We’re better together than we are apart. The IWL Conference in Louisville is the spark we all need to be better leaders, co-workers, entrepreneurs, and humans at work. I’ll be there. You should, too.

Jeff Nally is an executive coach, speaker, and author who creates no-nonsense neuroscience solutions to help leaders be more human at work. He is the President of Nally Group Inc., a practice focused on thescience of leadership and human interaction. Jeff can be reached at [email protected] and www.NallyGroup.com.